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Writer's pictureESSEX FREE PRESS

Support for Veterans Voices of Canada sought at County Council

by Adam Gault

Local committee members representing Veterans Voices of Canada attended Essex County Council on Wednesday, July 18, regarding the upcoming “128 Flags of Remembrance Ceremony.” This event will take place along the Detroit River in Windsor’s Assumption Park this coming September.

For the past five years, Veterans Voices of Canada has been championing the “128 Flags of Remembrance Ceremony,” which began as an initiative of Veterans Voices of Canada founder, Sylvan Lake, who travels across Canada, documenting the stories of our veterans to be donated to educational groups, museums, schools, and libraries.

Every year, Veterans Voices of Canada partners with communities across the nation to take part in the ceremony, which has 128 Canadian flags raised to represent and honour the 128,000 Canadian military and RCMP personnel killed or missing in action from the Boer War to the present day.

Windsor-Essex first took part in the event in 2017 and is the only community in Ontario to currently take part in the cross-Canada ceremony, set to launch simultaneously on September 21 at 1 p.m.

“This is an incredible way to induce passion into remembrance,” Michael Beale said, who is a representative from the local Veterans Voices of Canada. “It’s quite a moving ceremony, and quite frankly, it is a celebration of life, often times for the short period of time we had these men with us in our community.”

Veterans Voices of Canada attended the Essex County Council meeting seeking a donation in support of one of the 128 flags. Each flag that will be flown in Assumption Park requires a benefactor with a minimum $200 donation, which will be used to support a sponsored Honour Plaque that will be dedicated to a service member, past or present, as well as support the organization’s core mandate of interviewing and documenting the experiences of Canadian veterans to share with educational institutions across the country.

Council supported a motion to fund one of the flags and its respective Honour Plaque. The municipalities of Essex County may put forward similar motions to support additional flags to their respective councils in the coming weeks.

Members of the public who are interested in supporting an Honour Plaque are encouraged to reach out to Veterans Voices of Canada, either through their website at vetvoicecan.org or by calling Michael Beale at (519) 735-4633.



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